It's Prime Time at Bass Pro

State-of-the-art distribution center is ready for its close-up

The soaring success of Bass Pro Shops shows that the company knows what its customers want. Bass Pro’s theatrical and evocative environmental décor has been a hit with its outdoor-adventuring clientele, and at its state-of-the-art distribution center in Macon, the company is letting its fans go backstage.

“Our shoppers are the kind of people who are interested in how things happen,” says Bruce Beasley, vice president of distribution for Bass Pro. At the company’s new distribution center, Bass Pro shoppers for the first time anywhere will have the chance to peek behind the curtain and see “how an item gets from a vendor to a peg hook in the store.”

An observation area in the 420,000-square-foot facility will let customers watch cutting-edge mobile warehouse equipment dart in and out between aisles of merchandise, guided by a wireless system embedded in the floor and moving in precision to get everything from full-sized kayaks to the tiniest fishing lures into the center and back out to stores across the six Southeastern states it supports.

“I think being able to enter the distribution center environment and observe our trucks and conveyors will have a real ‘wow’ factor for our customers,” Beasley says.

If the stars of this show are ready for their close-up, everyone agrees it’s partly due to Quick Start’s training program for the distribution center employees, who will eventually number about 175.

Facing the challenge of training employees before the facility was built, Quick Start’s solution had to be as innovative as Bass Pro’s new distribution system.

“Having a simulated working warehouse for training was essential to having a well-trained workforce on the first day of operations,” says Burt Bethea, Quick Start training coordinator.

So Quick Start’s team studied Bass Pro’s operations in Missouri, documented the process and created a virtual distribution center with animations, video and multimedia technology.

This training, along with Quick Start’s customized core skills and job-specific courses, has paid dividends in both time and money, according to the company.

“We have a schedule for transferring stores to the new distribution center, and the Quick Start training has allowed us to move that schedule up by about a month,” says Ernie Reed, manager of the distribution center. “It’s helped reduce our turnover rate as well, all because the training gave the employees a good, solid understanding of what their job involves before they ever hit the floor.”

The training is particularly critical for the new Macon facility because the variety of products will surpass that of many other distribution centers.

“We handle 78,000 [different products], which is unusual among distribution centers,” says Beasley. “We’re not dealing with just shirts, or even just clothing. A trolling motor and a fishing lure are not handled the same way, and our employees have to know how to handle each one, and everything in between.”

The solution to that logistical challenge is technology, and with every new technological advance in the industry, a greater skill set is required from team members. The new Bass Pro facility incorporates all the latest innovations, from overhead scanners to automated high-speed conveyors and radio frequency (RF) scanning of labels and bar codes, and the new technology is changing the entire scope of a distribution center employee’s job.

“A lot of what we do with bar codes is all new to our associates, allowing so much to be done in real time,” says Beasley. “Before, someone would inventory a new shipment on the floor, and then take it to a clerk to input into the computer system. Now, the second you put something on a shelf and scan it with an RF scanner, the entire company knows where it is.”

Thanks to Quick Start training, these employees are prepared for the challenges.

“I’ve been very impressed with the Quick Start team — they did everything they said they were going to do, and that’s important,” says Beasley. “Lots of people make promises. Quick Start made promises and not only kept those promises, but often even exceeded them.”

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